Three people including teen found dead inside Meade Co home

BRANDENBURG, KY (WAVE) – Three people found dead inside a Meade County home have been identified by Kentucky State Police.

According to KSP, Ellen Cain, 42, her live-in boyfriend Warren Earl Tripp, 50, and Cain's 13 year old son all died of gunshot wounds. Neighbors identified the boy as Tucker Wimpee.

Trooper Jeff Gregory said the bodies were discovered around 8 a.m. Friday at a home in the 300 block of Otterview Court in Brandenburg. The call that brought deputies to the home was made to Meade County 911 to check on the welfare of the residents there.

State police estimate the deaths occurred around 7 a.m. Gregory said the shootings are being treated as a death investigation and that KSP is not looking for any suspects.

Tucker Wimpee was the son of Meade County Sheriff's Deputy Phil Wimpee, a resource officer at Meade County High School. He is not involved. Court documents reveal a contentious history between Tripp and Phil Wimpee. In 2006, Tripp was charged with menacing. He was ordered to stay at least 500 feet from Wimpee and to not be present during the exchange of children for visitation.

Court documents shed some light on a bitter custody battle over the years between Phil Wimpee and Ellen Cain. In 2010 Wimpee tried to get sole custody of Tucker and his older sister. At one point there was an emergency protective order issued for the children to keep them away from their mother's boyfriend, Tripp.

In an affidavit, the children's father said he worried Tripp had the potential of mentally and emotionally affecting them for the rest of their lives. Neighbors said they never witnessed any trouble.

"They were pretty good people and it's just hard," said Ashley Coulter, neighbor.

Coulter has watched tucker grow up. "I mean it just broke my heart," she said. "This kid has been coming over to my house and playing with my little brother and coming over to my friend's house hang out with them. He was a good boy."

All anyone wants to know is why, a question that may never be answered.

"It's selfish to me to take somebody else's life because of your own mess," said Stacey Pike, a family friend.

The bodies of the three victims have been brought to Louisville for autopsy at the State Medical Examiner's Office.

A relative of Phillip Wimpee asks the public to send donations in lieu of flowers to the Hager Funeral Home at 633 Bland St, Brandenburg, KY, 40108. Family members said Tucker's sister is financially responsible for burying their mother.